MHA orders closure of two Covid-19 centres as cases drop
NEW DELHI: The Centre has ordered a phased closure of two special and temporary Covidcare centres in the city in view of “continuous decline” in coronavirus cases. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a directive asking the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to “close down” the facility run by it and directed the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) to withdraw their health professionals manning the centre, and ordered the same with “immediate effect” to the ITBP for the Chhattarpur facility.
The DRDO facility called the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel COVID hospital is located in the Delhi Cantonment. The two facilities will be closed in phases and those admitted will be discharged gradually and no new admissions will be made now, a senior home ministry official said.
The decision was taken by Union Home secretary Ajay Bhalla after he chaired a review meeting of the Covid-19 situation along with officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, AFMS, ITBP and the DRDO. The two temporary facilities were set up in June-July last year as Delhi was witnessing a spike in Covid-19 cases in the middle of last year.
Home Ministry officials said the two centres are being closed “due to continuous decline” in the number of cases in the National Capital Territory of Delhi vis-a-vis adequate availability of medical facilities According to the data of Monday, Delhi recorded 128 new Covid cases and one death and the positivity rate stood at 0.30 per cent.
The Chhattarpur centre, which was also called the world’s largest Covidcare centre with over 10,000 beds, has no patients in critical care at present, while about 60 patients are admitted in the ward, the official data said.